The Year of The Phoenix
by BiancaaBlack
Summary: James, Sirius, Remus, Lily, Marlene and Dorcas are the first members of the Order Of The Phoenix. But this is not about the order, it's a story about their last year at Hogwarts, about friendship and about love. Follow these brave Gryffindors through their 7th year at school and the beginning of the Order of the Phoenix. Lily E./James P. Marlene M./Sirius B. Dorcas M./Remus L.
1. Reunion

"I am going to miss this," said Lily Evans, as she and her two best friends, Dorcas Meadows and Marlene McKinnon admired the station they had become so familiar with in the past 7 years. "I remember how big it all seemed when we were first years."

The three girls were so deep in thought, reliving memories that they were all a little startled when a deep voice spoke behind them.

"Someone's getting nostalgic." They turned around to face James Potter grinning broadly at them. His warm brown eyes sparkled with mischief behind his dark-rimmed glasses and his black messy hair stood up in every possible direction as usual. Accompanying him were two other boys of the same age. The first one was Remus Lupin. His head of honey colored hair that curled slightly around his temples wasn't bent down as usual, his nose buried in a book. His face looked mature beyond his years, his cheeks were slightly hallowed and deep bruises showed under his eyes, like he didn't get a good night's sleep in quite a while. He had hazel eyes that crinkled around the corners when he smiled, the only feature that showed his true age and brightened up his whole face. The other boy had slightly longer hair that was jet black and his eyes, the most peculiar shade of silver, winked at the three girls as a way of greeting them, his lips were curled in a grin. His features too were angular, regal almost, though he bore no noble lineage; his cheekbones high, the lines of his jaw and nose straight, his face pale and elegant. The latter, was the infamous Sirius Black.

"I'm so happy to see you!" Marlene all but screamed, going to hug the boys. Marlene had always been a pretty girl with long, golden locks like a halo around her head, and piercing icy blue eyes but she never bragged about her looks or looked down on anyone and had always claimed that she would've rather had Lily's green eyes or Dorcas' chocolate brown curls.

While Marlene knew very well she caught boys' stares everywhere and Lily did consider herself pretty, Dorcas Meadows, the third musketeer to their group didn't see that she was pretty and didn't believe this when anyone told her. And the fact that she didn't consider herself beautiful and let her two fiery best friends have the spotlight was something that intrigued Remus very much. He was looking at her, thinking about how mysterious she was, without intending too. When he caught her eye, she smiled, her cheeks turning rosy.

"Had a good summer girls?" asked the first boy, James Potter.

"Up until now, it was," Lily said half-jokingly. She regarded the boys with her head cocked to the side, her dark red hair spilling over her shoulders.

"You missed us, Evans. Admit it," Sirius Black teased.

"Sure I did, Black," she retorted but both teenagers had smiles on their faces.

"Well, I missed you, guys and I missed Hogwarts so I'm glad we're going back," said Marlene smiling broadly. "I even missed McGonagall, and good ol' Dumbledore, and Slughorn and …"

"I really don't want to interrupt our little reunion," Dorcas told everyone. "But we won't be going back to Hogwarts if we don't hurry to catch the train. It's going to leave any minute now." Realizing that Dorcas was right, everyone pushed their luggage in the direction of the platform 9 ¾, still chatting animatedly among themselves.

"Are you ready, everyone? This is the last time we're doing this, let's do it right."

"Oh, James, school didn't even start yet and you're making me feel nostalgic about leaving it," Sirius complained, laughing but he was as excited for the beginning of their last school year as James was.

"Ready?" James asked again, angling his luggage trolley towards the barrier, ready to run. Lily, Dorcas, Marlene, Remus and Sirius followed his lead and they all lined up, ready to run.

"Ready!" Sirius answered grinning at his best mate and everyone started dashing towards the barrier one after another, all laughing madly, crossing the barrier to platform 9 ¾ for the last time.

* * *

"Is that book about Hippogriffs?" Dorcas asked Remus, leaning in a bit to see what he was reading. The book showed different drawings of a Hippogriff's bone and muscular structure

"Yes, they're really peculiar creatures," Remus replied smiling at the girl.

"I find them quite interesting," Dorcas told him and they launched into a conversation where Remus told her about all the different habits that Hippogriffs had. Lily smiled at this, knowing full well that her best friend wasn't interested at all in the flying creatures, but more in the bookworm of a guy that stood next to her. Sirius and Marlene were quite into a game of exploding snap, so Lily resorted to making small talk with James, asking him about his summer and telling him about what class or lesson she was most excited for. In the past year, James and Lily stopped arguing like they always would when they were younger but they weren't quite friends. They more like had common friends. But Lily couldn't lie, James wasn't a bad bloke. Once he stopped asking her out constantly, she realized that he was actually a decent guy, not an annoying prat like she had initially thought.

"I need to go to the Heads meeting," Lily announced at one point. "Remus, are you coming too?"

"Yes, just a second," he responded, adjusting his Perfect badge.

"I need to find out who made head boy. Merlin, I hope it's not that annoying Hufflepuf, Amos Diggory, he is most infuriating, I don't reckon I could do patrols once a week with him," she shuddered. Marlene and Dorcas giggled at the thought of their friend being stuck with said Hufflepuf as a head boy.

"I'm pretty sure it's not him," James said smirking.

"How do you know that?"

"I have my sources," he told Lily while taking out his Head Boy badge and pinning it on his robe. "You ready to go, Lils?"

Lily's jaw almost dropped. James was Head Boy? She couldn't believe it! Had Dumbledore gone to the deep end? He made James Potter, infamous marauder, prankster and mischief maker Head Boy?!

Marlene put her hand over her mouth to hide her giggle and looked at Sirius with wide amused eyes.

"You can't believe how excited he's been ever since he found out," Sirius whispered in Marlene's ear. Unfortunately, Marlene didn't quite concentrate on his words because the second she felt Sirius's hot breath near her ear her mind blanked out and she got shivers down her spine. She hated to admit but Sirius did that to her sometimes. Of course, probably every girl at Hogwarts had that reaction to Sirius Black. Even Dorcas and Lily admitted he was handsome.

"Lily, are you ready to go?" James asked again and Lily nodded weakly still stunned.

* * *

"Has anyone seen Darcy?" Frank Longbottom asked opening the door to the compartment where Sirius, Marlene and Dorcas were. Sirius tried not to laugh at the poor boy, who was always losing his pet.

"Did you lose him again? Marlene asked.

The boy nodded weakly. "I don't know how but I always manage to lose that bloody cat."

"Don't worry, Frank, he's going to turn up eventually. He always does," Dorcas assured him. "Take a seat. What did you do this summer?" she asked the boy who was eager to tell her all about his trips with his parents around Europe.

"So, how was your summer, Sirius?" Marlene asked while studying her perfectly manicured red nails.

"Oh, you know same old, same old. Mum and Dad have disinherited me, Reggie dearest has got his dark mark and mum blasted me off the tree. So… nothing much, you?"

"I'm sorry," Marlene said softly but Sirius just brushed her comment off.

"It doesn't matter. I moved to James' for the rest of the summer and I don't plan on going back 'home' anyway. That place is worse than a hell hole. I'm sick and tired of it all, the arguments, the fights. Last time I dared confront Regulus about his dark mark and I was told that he wears his dark mark with pride and I should've done the same but I am 'a disgrace to the noble and most ancient house of Black'," he said mimicking his mother's shrill voice. "And then I was crucio'd," he deadpanned.

"Sirius," Marlene gasped. "That's … that's illegal. Why didn't you say anything?"

"Say what? Who would've done something, Mar? The ministry? Half of the people in the ministry are Voldemort's supporters or dead right Death eaters! That's why I keep saying, nothing will change if we don't fight back!"

"You know I agree with you but we're still in school… What could we do about it?"

"It's our last year. We'll soon leave and then what? We have to do something! We need to be able to protect ourselves and the ones we love! He's gaining so many followers. I heard my cousins! We have to do something. People don't realize how serious this is!"

All conversation around them has ceased. Things were always getting pretty heated whenever Sirius talked about You-Know-Who. He was convinced that people had to fight him and Marlene completely agreed with him but she didn't understand what they could do seeing as they were still young and quite inexperienced.

"Anything from the trolley, dears?" the sweets trolley woman asked breaking the tension.

"Some of your perfect timing, please," Marlene murmured.

* * *

"Uh… so we need to find out how we are going to split patrolling duties," Lily said absentmindedly, scribbling on a schedule, her brow furrowed in concentration.

"I think it's simple, Lily. We'll have Gryffindor Perfects on Monday, Ravenclaw Perfects next, then Hufflepuf, Slytherin and then on Friday the Head boy and girl and after we finish we can start over. What is it to figure out?" James explained matter-of-factly.

"Nothing…"

"Ok, so I guess me and Lily will patrol this Friday," James said writing this information down.

"Great," Lily said half-heartedly.

"Well, that matter's settled, we'll have our next meeting tomorrow after classes to figure out patrolling routes and hours. Until then… everything's settled. Lily and I will patrol tonight, just to get to know the routes better and then we'll tell you everything there is to know. That is, if you are ok with tonight, Lily."

"Oh, yes. Sure, James," she told him."

"Ok. Then we'll see everyone tomorrow," James concluded and everyone stood up to leave the meeting and head back to their compartments.

_James wasn't that bad actually, _Lily thought_. He was quite responsible and he definitely has leader qualities. Well, of course, he has leader qualities, Lily, he's captain of the Quidditch team! But… maybe James has matured. Maybe Dumbledore didn't make a bad decision making him Head Boy._

The redhead's internal rambling was interrupted when a petite girl with short black hair that was cut like a boy's and round doe like brown eyes that seemed too big for her face, making her look like a porcelain doll stumbled out from a compartment. The girl held a brown cat in her arms that struggled to set itself free.

"Oh, hi, Remus, James and Lily," she greeted them with a big smile. "I'm looking for Frank, if you see him, please tell him I've found Darcy." She pointed with her chin towards the cat in her arms. "Thank you," she finished quickly, opening the next compartment and asking inside if anyone had seen Frank.

James just shrugged at the girl's weird behavior and continued to walk towards their compartment. He passed the trolley lady and bought some Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and made a face when the first one he tried was Fungus flavored. He entered the compartment, oblivious to the tension around and took a seat next to Sirius, offering him candy. Lily and Remus followed, the latter closing the door and they took a seat too, greeting Frank.

"Oh, by the way, Frank. Alice's got Darcy, she was looking for you," Lily told him.

"Merlin bless that girl," he said smiling dreamily. "I don't know what I'd do without her. Thank you, Lily," he said and went to search for Alice.

"How was the meeting?" Dorcas asked Lily, her eyes quickly darting towards James who was inspecting two Bertie Bott's beans, trying to figure out the flavor. Marlene was listening now too, wanting to hear Lily's response.

"It was good," Lily answered in a matter which said 'I'll fill you in later' and Marlene sighed disappointedly. Remus was pretending to be reading a book but the small smile that played on his lips betrayed that he had been listening in on the conversation too. James and Sirius though, were completely oblivious, comparing bean colours and debating on whether a pink bean was supposed to be sweet or sour.

"We need to go and uh… get something from our luggage," James said after some time as he, Remus and Sirius got up and were about to leave the compartment. They seemed to be buzzing from excitement.

"Okay," Lily said, taking out a book called '101 Ways to Anger Gillypuffs' to read.

"Not so fast," Marlene told them and Dorcas started giggling. "I want in too."

"You want in?" Remus and Lily asked her, both with confused looks on their faces.

"Don't play dumb, Remus. And Lily, honestly, I expected more from you. We've known them for so many years, you should already know that's 'code' for we're going to go and pull a prank. I want in," the girl finished smugly.

"A prank? James, you're Head boy, you can't do this," Lily told him, starting to doubt her previous theory that James had matured.

"Sorry, Lils. It's our last year at Hogwarts; we need to make the best of it."

"Exactly my point. I want in," Marlene insisted.

"But this is Marauder stuff," James said quite uncertain as to what to do.

"Oh, come on, Prongs, she wants some fun, so let's show her how the Marauders have fun," Sirius said, grinning at Marlene. "It's quite an easy prank too, nothing too laborious."

"Okay. I guess you can come this time. It's not a major prank anyway," James said and opened the compartment door to leave.

"Dory?" Marlene asked, raising an eyebrow expectantly at her best friend. "Are you coming too?"

"Ehh…" she said unsure, but a little 'please' from Remus was all it took for Dorcas to give in.

"You are so going to get detention from that," Lily told them nonchalantly as they left the compartment.

"Been there, done that," Marlene said at the same time that Dorcas said "I know! It's so exciting!"

* * *

**I kind of had the whole plot for this story in my head for quite a long time but I never got round to writing it. Until now, that is. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you'll enjoy future chapters too (where there will be more of Lily/Jame, Sirius/Marlene and Dorcas/Remus)**

**Rate and review if you don't mind. I really appreciate it. :)**


	2. Head Duties

"Pay attention," Sirius told Marlene, showing the girl some dark grey spheres that seemed to have some sort of gas swirling inside them, much like the look of a crystal ball. "These are our new prototype. They explode on impact so you have to throw them and once they smash into a wall or anything solid, they will create ten times as much smoke as a regular dung bomb." Marlene nodded, signaling that she understood. "Now, what we have to do is throw the smoke spheres and everything will become dark so Remus and Dory will have time to do part two of the master plan and make everyone's luggage open and everyone's belongings mix together. Then it'll be James and my turn to do the final part and you and Dorcas will have to remain near the door and use the spell I taught you to clear the smoke. When you start seeing each other through the smoke you let the rest clear by itself and you run. You'll find us four compartments after that door. Are you ready?"

"Yes," Marlene said smiling broadly. She was more exciting then she thought she would be. They quickly entered the compartment and ducked behind some seats and luckily no one saw them. This was the part that Sirius' had been worried about, seeing as they couldn't have used the invisibility cloak with the girls because a marauder never reveals all his secrets.

"Be ready to cover your ears. They could make quite a loud noise," Sirius warned her.

"Have you never tried them before?" Marlene asked, starting to worry.

"Nope," the boy answered grinning. "Go!" he told Marlene and they both threw the spheres into the opposite wall. The devices immediately exploded with a really loud noise, as Sirius had predicted. The room was full of thick dark smoke in a matter of seconds.

"I'm going to help James with part two," Sirius whispered out of nowhere. Marlene couldn't see anything around her but she heard his voice clearly and knew he was really close to her. "Remus will get Dory here from the other side of the compartment. Once she's near you start clearing up the smoke. Then run. I'll see you in a bit," he said and left.

On the other side of the compartment, Dorcas was running blindly after Remus who had a pair of see-in-the-dark goggles, and was charming suitcases left and right. After the third time she tripped over a piece of clothing that had fallen from the luggage on the floor, Remus caught her hand in his and guided her towards Marlene's hiding spot.

"Doe, Mar, it's your turn," Remus said as he let go of Dorcas hand and left the girls to do their part of the prank. The two girls took out their wands and did the spell that the Marauders had taught them. As soon as the smoke started to clear so did the screams. Dorcas saw Marlene next to her and the girls jumped from their cover and ran towards the door. Before they left however, they saw the confused looks of all the first years, all the pieces of clothes scattered around the compartment and the open suitcases, and 'A warm welcome to Hogwarts from the Marauders' written in big red letters on one window. Dorcas and Marlene ran towards the compartment where the boys were waiting for them.

"The look on their faces was precious! Precious!" Dorcas told Marlene as they both entered the compartment, doubled over with laughter.

"Imagine how much time it's going to take them to get all their belongings together in their suitcases again," Marlene said between gasps of laughter.

Sirius, Remus and James gave them amused looks and motioned for them to turn around. Behind them was professor McGonagall. The girls had now sheepish smiles that matched the boys'.

"Oh, hello, professor," Marlene said as McGonagall raised her eyebrows. Clearly, Professor McGonagall catching them so soon wasn't part of the plan.

"Miss Meadows, Miss McKinnon, I'm quite surprised to see you here. Nevertheless, you'll be joining these young men in detention tomorrow," she told them and turned around on her heels and left. How she had managed to hear about the prank so soon, was beyond the teenagers.

"Good to see you too, Minnie," Sirius yelled after the professor. "It's good to be back," he sighed.

* * *

"So, James, you've got patrolling duties with Lilykins," Sirius teased his friend, once they were all embarked on the Thestral carriages. Lily and Remus went to help Hagrid and the first years with the boats, so the only ones left in the carriage were Sirius, James, Dorcas and Marlene.

"Yep," James said grinning from ear to ear.

"Just as a tip, I can show you all the broom closets located in Hogwarts. The ones on the 3rd floor are the most spacious though," Sirius said wiggling his eyebrows at James which made him laugh.

"Sirius, ew, no one needs to know that you've tried all the broom closets in Hogwarts or your opinion on them," Marlene said wrinkling her nose.

"Oh, shut it, McKinnon. I know you've had your fair share of broom closets too," Sirius retorted barking a laugh which made Marlene start laughing too.

"Anyway, did you notice that she called you James not Potter today," Dorcas asked James.

"No," James said with a serious look plastered on his face.

'Didn't you now?" asked Marlene suspiciously.

"Of course I bloody noticed," James shouted grinning like a madman. "How could I not notice? Oh, and the way she said it, I almost got goose bumps."

"Now, Prongs, there's no need to behave like a fourteen year old girl. What's next, telling us you felt butterflies in your stomach," Sirius mocked his mate which made everyone in the carriage laugh apart from James who pouted.

"Joy killer," he muttered at Sirius which only made the boy laugh more.

* * *

"How can you eat so much? It's like your stomach is a bottomless pit! I don't understand where all that food goes," Marlene marveled at Sirius, who just finished eating the mound of food that had been piled on his plate.

"Believe me, everything that goes in, comes out too," James said which made all the girls grimace.

"There goes my appetite," Dorcas muttered, pushing her unfinished pudding away.

Everyone got up from the table and left the Great Hall, headed for the Gryffindor Tower.

"James, Remus and I have to go with the first years and show them the way. See you in a bit," Lily announced and she left with the two boys, leaving Sirius, Dorcas and Marlene to head to their common room.

"Okay," Sirius said rubbing his hands together and grinning. "How long do you think it'll last?" he asked Marlene and Dorcas.

"How long will what last?" asked Dorcas, confused.

"Lily pretending she doesn't fancy James. I'll say they'll be together by Thanksgiving," he said smugly.

"Thanksgiving?! That's so close!" Marlene exclaimed. "No, I don't think Lily will cave in that easily but I'll give them until New Year's."

"I don't know," said Dorcas as they entered the Gryffindor common room. "They are not screaming at each other anymore, yes, but I think it'll take much longer until Lily sees James as boyfriend material. I think it won't happen until we graduate," she said and both Sirius and Marlene shook their heads.

"Lily Evans and James Potter?" a 6th year Gryffindor boy asked, joining in the conversation. "Now that they're head boy and girl they'll be spending loads of time together. I'll give them maximum five months till they get together." Everyone in the common room had listened and they were all chatting now.

"James and Lily? I thought they were already secretly dating," one blond 5th year said.

"James Potter? Is he the Gryffindor Quidditch captain? Such a shame if he gets together with whats-her-name, he's such a hottie. I was hoping I'd have a chance with him," another girl sighed.

"For Merlin's sake, Lina, if you didn't have your head up in the clouds for these whole 4 years you've been at Hogwarts you would have known that no one has a chance with James Potter besides from Lily Evans. The bloke's head over heels in love with her!"

"Get together?" another girl squeaked. "No way, Lily hates James. She is mature and that's why she is nice to him now but hell will freeze over before they get together." Everyone was now debating when or whether Lily and James were going to be a couple.

"Does anyone want to place some bets?" Sirius asked smirking as Marlene shot him an incredulous look. "What?" he asked. "This is easy money, trust me. You'll see!"

* * *

"And we'll finish with patrolling near the Ravenclaw tower. I think we've covered everything and we're still fairly close to our own dormitories," James said writing the patrolling route down in a notebook.

Lily nodded absentmindedly not thinking about patrolling duties at all. She turned her head slightly and looked at James through her lashes. A dark lock of his black hair fell on his forehead in his eyes and he impatiently pushed it back. His brows were furrowed in concentration as his eyes scanned the page he was scribbling on. She could get what the other girls saw in him, he was quite a handsome boy she just didn't pay attention to that before. And he seemed to have matured; he seemed like a decent guy.

"Do you think we should switch Ravenclaw and Slytherin perfects for patrolling?" he asked and finally raised his eyes from the notebook. "Why are you staring at me? Have I still got red paint on my face from the train prank?" he asked alarmed. "I asked Sirius and he told me I was ok," he muttered scrubbing angrily at his cheek.

"No, no, stop, you're rubbing your skin raw. There's nothing on your cheek," she quickly assured him smiling to herself.

"Then why were you staring at me?" he asked again confusion flickering in his eyes.

"I… wasn't," Lily said quickly and then looked away, blushing. _Really smooth Lily, really smooth. Why are you blushing now? Or more importantly why were you staring at him? What are you doing Lily?_

* * *

**AN: Hey everyone! Merry Christmas!**

**I have the next chapter already written so let me know if you like the story and want me to continue it.**

**Thank you,**

**Bianca xx :)**


	3. Expecto Patronum!

"Hey guys, do you want to hear a joke Padfoot told me?" James asked as he plopped himself down at the breakfast table. He was obviously not in a good mood. Everyone shook their heads. "Yeah, I didn't want to hear it either."

Remus rolled his eyes, being already used to James' moodiness in the morning. He never quite understood why Sirius felt the need to provoke him every single day. In fact, he wasn't actually sure that Sirius did it on purpose. He got back to reading the Daily Prophet oblivious to the disappointed girl that tried to strike up a conversation with him. Seeing that Remus was engrossed in the morning paper, Dorcas turned to talk to Lily and Marlene who were discussing their Transfiguration homework.

"Hey, guys, do you want to hear a really funny joke?" Sirius asked, running into the great hall and sitting down at the table. Everyone's responses ranged from "No, not really", "Sorry but no" to "If I hear that joke again I'll throw you off the astronomy tower."

Sirius frowned. "Oh, joy killers." He started piling food on his plate and poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice.

"I'm really excited we're starting our Patronus lessons today. Aren't you too?" Lily asked everyone and the boys nodded weakly while the girls started chatting excitedly.

Marlene was almost bouncing in her seat from excitement. "I can't wait to see what animal mine will be. Its form is supposed to reflect your personality or be linked to something that has happened in your life."

Lily scoffed. "You are aware that not every Patronus takes a certain shape, right? I'm more excited about getting to try out such a complex spell."

"You're such a dork, Lily."

* * *

"Mr. Black, why weren't you in class yesterday?"

Sirius scratched the back of his head in fake confusion. He plopped himself down on a seat next to Remus who shook his head and tried to hide his grin. "There was a class yesterday?"

"Yes, Mr. Black. I supposed that by 7th year you would have learnt that you have classes every day from Monday to Friday," professor Flitwick said turning his back to the class to pick up his wand.

Sirius leaned back in his chair and grinned. "At least I went to class today. Don't focus on the negatives, professor," he said and the Gryffindors roared with laughter.

"Settle down, settle down," Flitwick said trying to calm the giggling students. "As you probably know, today you are going to attempt to learn the Patronus charm," he said. Lily leaned further in her chair, her eyes wide with excitement. She placed her quill down on the desk, her hands itching to grab for her wand.

"_Attempt to learn?_" Marlene snickered. "That sounds promising," she said sarcastically. Nevertheless, she was listening intently to the teacher and couldn't wait to try the spell out herself.

"The Patronus," Flitwick went on, "is a charm that evokes a partially-tangible, positive energy force that is designed mainly for defense against dark creatures such as dementors, which are otherwise invincible. Also, this spell can be used as a means of communication though that is not the charm's primary use. A Patronus is a kind of positive force, and for the wizard who can conjure one, it works something like a shield. In order to conjure up a Patronus you need to think of the happiest memory you have. It must be a very powerful memory. However, the memory does not need to be a specific moment from your past."

"That's not confusing at all," Dorcas muttered sarcastically.

"Arguably more important than content, is how the memory or thought makes you feel now. You can think of a loved person and what they mean to you and if that's powerful enough it can conjure up a Patronus. Remember that not all Patronuses take a corporeal form or an animal shape, if you may, and it is a hard spell so a lot of you won't be able to do it today." By this point everyone in the classroom was hardly breathing, all focused on the professor's words. "Now, the wand movement is fairly simple, all you've got to do is point the wand in the direction you want your Patronus to be and the incantation is, repeat after me: Expecto Patronum," he said and the class echoed. "Very well! I'm pretty sure that by this point everyone has thought of their happy memory and as you're all fidgeting to try the spell out, off you go!"

Even before his words left the professor's mouth everyone was wand-in-hand, ready to cast the spell. Lily gripped her wand with shaking hands and closed her eyes racking her brain for the happiest memory she had. She thought of her sister, of Petunia and her parents when she was 7 years old, before she found out she was a witch and they were at the zoo. She remembered how Petunia and herself were inseparable then, like two peas in a pod and how they ran around the zoo, trying to catch a glimpse of the monkeys that were hiding in the trees. She couldn't help the little smile that played on her lips and without opening her eyes she said the incantation. A bright light washed over her lids and her eyes fluttered open and she expected to see her Patronus. Instead, the light came from somewhere to her left and she was stunned to notice that strings of light blue light sprung from James', Sirius' and Remus' wands ending in a big ball of bright light. Even Peter had managed to cast the spell though his Patronus was not as bright and it flickered out of existence quickly. She couldn't distinguish shapes but it looked like the ball of light consisted of three animals playing with each other. Her attention was snapped back to the front of the classroom when Professor Flitwick gasped.

"Who-whose Patronus is that?" he asked, scrambling to come and see.

"Ours, professor," Remus said sheepishly. The students, who were all gaping, were already clearing a path for Flitwick to come to the three boys. Lily, however, turned her back to the boys and kept trying to do the spell.

"Expecto Patronum!" she muttered under her breath indignantly. "Expecto Patronum! Expecto Patronum! Merlin's beard, Expecto Patronum!"

"Your Patronuses are corporeal too!" Flitwick gaped in astonishment. "On your first try! I-I've never seen this before! You managed to make the spell too, Mr. Pettigrew, haven't you? Forty points for Gryffindor!" He turned to his desk at the front of the classroom, shaking his head and urging the other students to try to do the spell again.

James nudged Sirius. "See, mate, I told you everyone would be impressed if we practiced the charm in the summer and came to school already knowing how to do it," he whispered.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Prongs but Lily is not impressed," Remus told him, pointing towards the frustrated redhead who continuously tried to do the spell but only a flicker of blue sparks flew from the tip of her wand.

An hour later, a few more of the students had managed to shoot a ribbon of blue light out of their wands, including Marlene, Lily and Dorcas but they were all really frustrated because the light would fade after just a few seconds. Remus stood next to Dorcas, trying to teach her the proper wand movement.

"There is no movement, really," he said. "You don't need to swish your wand around so much, just keep it steady." He moved behind Dorcas and put his hand over hers on her wand. "Like this. Try now," he told the blushing girl. Dorcas said the incantation and to her utter surprise a jet of blue light flew out of her wand and formed a ball of light at the end.

"I did it!" she said astonished. Remus smiled and congratulated her, which of course made her cheeks turn red once again.

"I bet that moment makes a happy memory," Marlene said flatly rolling her eyes at Dorcas and Remus.

"Somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed today," Sirius said, grinning at the girl who scowled at him in response.

"How come you did it on your first try and I can't?" Marlene asked indignantly. She was gripping her wand so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Marlene was a perfectionist and hated when she couldn't do something perfectly. She frowned as she tried to do the enchantment again and her wand only shot out a jet of light that sputtered after a few seconds.

"It takes a lot of skill to master the Patronus charm, Miss McKinnon," he mocked her.

"Oh, bite me!" Marlene said annoyed and tried to conjure up her Patronus again. James, Remus, Peter and Sirius roared with laughter all at once which earned them a few weird looks from some of the students.

"I don't think I've ever heard someone use that phrase better than Marlene," Remus said clutching his stomach.

"AHA!" Lily shrieked, unaware of the boys' earlier laughing fit. A few of the students turned to glare at her for breaking their concentration. Marlene stomped her foot down in annoyance and jealousy as she saw why her friend was so pleased about.

"Bloody hell!"

"And that, Mr. Black is yet another detention for you this week," Professor Flitwick said without even looking up from the papers that he scribbled on.

"What is that?" Sirius asked, oblivious to the professor. He was pointing at Lily's Patronus, which she now managed to conjure up and which was a doe.

Lily put a hand on her hip and looked condescendingly at him. "What, Black, you think that no one is as good as you to make a Patronus on our first lesson?" Lily asked but Sirius just started howling with laughter and pointed towards James' wand.

"It's a sign, Lily flower," James said smirking and wiggling his eyebrows.

It was now Lily's turn to ask: "What is that?"

James tried – but failed abysmally – to hide his 100 watt grin. "As far as I know, Lily, dear, it's a stag - a male deer." By this point, Sirius was almost rolling on the floor with laughter.

"Mine… mine is a doe," Lily said confused.

"Exactly my point," said James smugly and winked at the bewildered girl.

* * *

**AN: Thank you lovely people for the lovely reviews!**

**And Lydia (beautiful name by the way) to answer your question: I don't know for sure how long this story will end up to be but I want it to cover their whole 7****th**** year so I'm thinking there will be 20-ish chapters or so. And I plan to make a sequel to it of the Marauders & co. in the Order of the Phoenix if this story turns out to be liked.**

**Don't forget to rate and tell me your opinion!**

**Thanks,  
Bianca xx :)**


	4. Yumtastic

"Have you finally decided to try out for my team, Mar?" James asked adjusting his Quidditch gear. Marlene was sitting next to Dorcas and Peter in the stands of the Quidditch team to watch the tryouts. The blonde haired girl was checking out all the players on the field like a cat eyeing a canary she planned to eat for dinner. Dorcas on the other hand paid no attention to the tryouts but was helping Peter with his History of Magic essay.

"No way, James, that would royally mess up my hair," she joked. "I'm just here for some eye candy. Have you seen any hot guys yet, Doe?" She looked over at her friend who was pointing out a passage in the History of Magic textbook to Peter with one hand and in the other she was clutching a book she had borrowed from Remus. "Don't even answer that. I know your answer," she said to no one in particular, suppressing a sigh.

Sirius strolled on the Quidditch field putting his beater gloves on looking as he always did - like he had no care in the world. A group of girls in the stands started giggling excitedly and whispering among themselves. Marlene tried not to roll her eyes as Sirius winked at them. "What brings you here, McKinnon?" Sirius asked her.

"She's here for some _eye candy_," James explained making air quotes around the words.

"Well look no further, Marlene dearest, I'm here to please your pretty eyes!" He announced puffing his chest and winking at the girl who just rolled her eyes.

"Your ego is absolutely incredible, Black. They should bottle that stuff and sell it. Anyway, I'm not really sure how your massive ego even fits in that head of yours!"

Sirius flashed his pearly whites. "I'm pretty sure my massive ego is stored in another organ than my head so it can fit," he said smirking. The group of girls in the started squealing, giggling and blushing like there was no tomorrow.

"Merlin's beard, pants and buttocks make him stop, my ears are bleeding!" Dorcas wailed, making James laugh.

Marlene ignored them. "Who's the guy who's trying out for keeper? He looks yumtastic!" Mar said and wiggled her eyebrows at Dorcas who tilted her head to the side looking at the boy Marlene was talking about. Her expression showed that she didn't think the guy was particularly handsome. Sirius looked at the boy and scoffed.

"Yumtastic?" he muttered to James. "Is that even a word?"

Marlene rolled her eyes but ignored them once again. "Oh, come on, Doe! Have you seen his pretty blue eyes? And he looks more than fine in a Quidditch uniform," Marlene said but as she commented about Quidditch uniforms her eyes travelled towards Sirius.

"Sirius is much more handsome," Peter mentioned and Sirius beamed.

"Of course I am, Wormtail, but everyone knows that already," he said but there was a hint of annoyance in his eyes as he regarded the keeper again.

An hour and a half later, after the tryouts had finished James stood in the middle of the field with a list in his hand.

"Delia Armstrong you're our new seeker. You did a good job out there!" James said to the girl. "And... Timothy Dawn from now on you're our keeper. Sorry for the Bludger accident, Tim. I'm sure Sirius didn't do it on purpose," James said glaring at his friend who just shrugged.  
"Congrats on that last save, by the way, Tim! I'm glad to have you on the team, you're yumtastic!" James' eyes widened when he realized what he had said and Sirius, Marlene and Dorcas started howling with laughter at James' embarrassment and at Tim's weird look.

"I meant fantastic! FANtastic!" James quickly corrected himself. "I'm as straight as they come! Bloody hell! McKinnon this is your fault!"

* * *

Lily balanced her enormous stack of books on her hip as she carefully descended towards the little dock on the black lake the marauders had built in their 4th year.

"Let me help you with that," Remus said as he took some of her books and added them to his own pile. He put the books down to summon the boat which had been hidden on one inaccessible bank of the Black lake by James and Sirius.

"If my books get wet, Lupin, you're dead," Lily threatened, joining him on the make-shift dock.

"I thought only James and Sirius didn't have first name privileges, Evans. Anyway, this was your idea, not mine," the boy said. It had been Lily's idea to go on a boat in the middle of the lake to find peace and quiet to study, indeed, but she was now having second thoughts. "Here," Remus said as the boat neared the dock. He lowered himself down carefully into the boat and then asked Lily to hand him the books.

"Please, be careful," Lily pleaded giving him on book at a time. When he finally put all the books in the raft he took her hand to help her climb in.

"Careful not to tilt the boat too much," Remus warned her.

"I'm always careful," she retorted but as she put her first foot in the boat started rocking and losing her footing she dropped clumsily into the boat making it turn upside down. She shrieked as she fell into the icy water. "My books!" she screeched as she resurfaced sputtering water. "It's so cold, so cold," she shivered as she swam near the dock, with Remus doing the same. She turned her head to the side where she heard a very well-known laugh.

"I thought you guys were supposed to be the smart ones," Marlene said as she clutched Sirius' shoulder to keep from falling as she convulsed with laughter.

"Shut it, Blondie," Lily muttered her teeth clattering. She couldn't stop shivering as she squeezed her clothes and hair that dripped water on the ground.

"It is immensely rude and highly hypocritical of you to call someone names based on their hair color, Red," Marlene told Lily and stuck out her tongue at her. "Your shirt's now see-through, by the way," she noted blankly.

"Great," Lily groaned her whole face turning red. All the boys were polite enough to look away as she wrapped her arms around herself self-consciously.

"Erm… Here, take this," James said giving her his Quidditch cloak and Lily quickly thanked him, draping the cloak around her shoulders.

"Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, I hope you're ready for your detention," McGonagall said as she strutted over to the boys. "Lily, Remus what on earth happened to you?" she added as an afterthought. "Never mind, go and change!" Remus and Lily quickly scurried away at the professor's command with Marlene, Peter and Dorcas hot on their heels.

"Professor, we just had Quidditch tryouts and we're really tired, can't we postpone this?" Sirius pleaded.

"No such thing. I won't bargain with you, Mr. Black." Sirius pouted at this. "You need to go and clean the grounds of the leaves-"

"Easy, peasy," James said quickly happy he could finish with the detention.

"-without your wands," McGonagall continued.

"How are we supposed to do that?" James inquired desperately.

"The muggle way, Mr. Potter. With rakes."

"I'm pretty sure that's not in the 'What a Student Should Do While in Detention' book," Sirius argued.

"Oh believe me, Mr. Black. When your number of detention surpassed any other student's I had to become more inventive. This is your punishment. I expect the yard clean by tomorrow morning," she said already walking away to the castle.

* * *

"This is ridiculous!" Sirius complained. He kept raking the leaves haphazardly in all directions making no progress. "How are we supposed to ever finish this? It's impossible."

"Pads stop! Wait a minute, I've got a leaf in my eye!" James told his mate. Sirius ignored his friend and kept raking the leaves making them fly everywhere.

James yelled at him. "Padfoot! There is seriously something in my eye, you blithering idiot!"

"Yeah, Prongsie, your eyeball," Sirius retorted never continuously raking the leaves. "Now shut up and keep on cleaning this up or we'll never finish. I don't want to be stuck in detention for-" Suddenly, the pile of leaves before him disappeared. Looking, around he realized that there was not a single leaf in sight in the whole courtyard. "-ever," Sirius finished lamely.

"Lily, you're a savior," James said addressing the red-headed which had done the spell to clear the courtyard of leaves.

'Consider this getting even from earlier," Lily told James. She and Dorcas, Remus, Marlene and Peter exited the castle and were now near the two nearly exhausted boys.

"We're going to get some pumpkins to decorate the common room for tomorrow's party. Do you want to come?" Dorcas asked the boys.

"Of course," James said smiling at Lily, all former tiredness forgotten. He brushed of bits of leaves from his clothes and left his rake propped next to a tree.

"You've got leaves in your hair," Marlene said smiling. She reached to brush the bits of leaves out of Sirius' hair. "Better," she concluded after the last bit was gone. She turned on her heel and walked toward the pumpkin patch. "Come on!" Everyone followed quickly.

Once they reached Hagrid's hut they all looked around for good pumpkins. Marlene kept arguing with Dorcas because Marlene insisted that they need perfect pumpkins while Dorcas said that weirdly shaped pumpkins were more special. Lily sat down on a pumpkin, tired of her friends' quarrelling and James quickly joined her watching silently as Remus, Peter and Sirius hauled the pumpkins that the girls picked.

"Watch this," Sirius said. He left the pumpkin he was carrying down and did a headstand behind it so it looked like the pumpkin was his head.

"I'm not taking you to the hospital wing if you hurt yourself, Padfood," Remus warned him. He shook his head at Dorcas who was laughing at Sirius beside him.

James waved off his friend's concern. "Relax, Moony. Worse case, he gets a bump on his head."

"One more bump and I'm afraid he'll go off the deep-end," Remus mumbled and Lily giggled.

"Sirius has been off the deep end since third year, Moony." Marlene tried to hide her grin.

Sirius put his feet back on the ground and turned right-side-up again. "Oi, shut up you two!"

* * *

"Thanks for lending me this earlier," Lily told James, handing him his cloak. He smiled sheepishly at her and draped the cloak over his arm.

"No problem."

Lily found herself peering at James out of the corner of her eye. She realized that patrolling with him was much more pleasant that she would've thought. They hadn't argued at all lately and James seemed to have really matured. She sometimes had really deep conversations and debates with him on subjects ranging from muggle traditions to what should be taught at Hogwarts to the wizarding war that was going on at the moment. She was sometimes even looking forward to her afternoon patrols. There was something strangely calming and relaxing in the quietness of the castle in the evening. And believe it or not, she was begging to enjoy spending time with him.

"You're staring at me again," he said his eyes glued on the moon. It was really pretty, the moon, Lily thought. It was almost full and it lit up the sky like a smaller sun.

"You're not really that bad, James," she blurted out. The top of her cheekbones immediately flashed pink. Luckily to her James brushed off the compliment. She didn't quite expect that.

"You've called me James again. You have since the start of the year. Does that mean I get first name privileges now, Miss Evans?" he asked casually turning to flash her a grin, a dimple showing in his left cheek. Lily laughed a rich genuine laugh and James seemed stunned for a second.

"I guess you do."

* * *

**AN: Hello again, lovely people who take the time to read my story (I really appreciate that, by the way). This chapter was written a bit carelessly because I can't wait to post the next chapter which will be the Halloween party at Hogwarts. I actually think I will split the party in two chapters or else it will end up as a horrendously long chapter. Anyway, are you curious to see what your beloved Marauders & co. will dress up as? I hope you are.**

**Thank you again for the lovely reviews and I will try to post the next chapter as soon as possible. Since I'm currently on winter break I have a lot of free time to write and that's why I update my story so often. **


	5. Meow

"Lily, let me do it. You're totaling messing up your hair," Marlene said. She went to help her friend tie a blue bow in her now light brown curls with expert dexterity. "Meow! Dory, watch out for my tail!"

"Sorry, I keep tripping over my cape," Dorcas apologized, trying to gather her red cape in one hand. The girl was dressed in a short, flared white dress and a flowing red cape was draped over her shoulders, the red hood covering her chocolate curls.

"You could try putting on some red lipstick," Marlene suggested, applying mascara to her lashes.

Dorcas rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty sure Little Red Riding Hood didn't have red lipstick on, Mar. Now let's go downstairs, we're already late."

"Red lipstick is hot," Marlene insisted as she descended the stairs. "I'd put red lipstick on me right now if I could," she concluded swatting Lily's hand away from her hair. Lily kept fidgeting with her brown locks and was nervous about the change in her appearance.

"Lily, you're making your hair turn red again! Stop playing with it. You look fine with brown hair. It's part of your costume. Besides, it's not permanent, so why worry," Dorcas told Lily, arranging her bow again when they reached the bottom of the stairs. The common room was decorated with carved pumpkins and flying candles and all the furniture had been moved to the side to make room for the dance floor.

"What are you dressed as?" Sirius asked his eyes wide. James and Sirius were now near the girls, in front of the stairs that led to the girls' dormitories.

"Seriously? If the pointed ears or long tail didn't tip you off I expected the whiskers to do the trick. I'm a cat, Sirius. I'm pretty sure you've must have seen some," Marlene told him indignantly. Her bright blue eyes shined in the candle light making her seem much younger and innocent. She had a long black tail that she had charmed to appear and her ears were replaced by pointed cat ears on top of her head, her nose resembled a cat's nose and she had whiskers. Other than that, her costume consisted of a skintight faux leather suit that showed off every single curve of her body and high heeled shoes, making her look not so innocent at all.

"Great costume choice, Marls," James said trying hard not to laugh. "What are you dressed up as, Lily?"

"Apparently she's some guy, Peter Pan's girlfriend," Marlene said before Lily could. Not being acquainted with muggle stories, she found Lily's and Dorcas' costumes utterly confusing, even though the two girls tried to quickly explain to her the nature of their costumes.

"I'm Wendy Darling, Marlene," Lily rolled her eyes. She had a cute blue dress on with some white shoes and held a book in her hand, insisting it was a prop for her costume since Wendy loved books.

"I got that, darling Lily."

"No, Marls. _Darling _is her last name," Lily explained shaking her head.

"Wait a minute. Who's this Peter bloke we're talking about?" James inquired frowning slightly. Lily showed him the cover of the book she was holding which was the Peter Pan novel her mother had bought her when she was little. "His hair is red," James said frustrated. "Is he a Weasley?"

"It's just a story, James," Lily told him but couldn't hide the grin on her face.

"Are you sure? Because he does resemble Arthur Weasley a bit if you look at him," he said inspecting the cover.

"You're silly," Lily told him but she was giggling. "Anyway, isn't your hair supposed to be gelled?"

"No way, it can't be tamed," he said running a hand through his hair, grinning proudly.

"Wait, what are you dressed up?" Dorcas asked looking at James with her head cocked to the side. James had a button down shirt that was tucked neatly into his pants – so uncharacteristically.

"He's Clark Kent," Lily said at the same time James told Dorcas "I'm Superman," as he ripped his shirt open to reveal the red costume underneath. The girls laughed when buttons started flying everywhere. In that moment, Remus and Peter descended the stair and a button hit Peter in the forehead leaving a red mark behind. "Sorry, Pete," James apologized quickly, and then he looked over at Remus which had a long black cape and fangs instead of canines. "You're a vampire?" he said incredulously. "That's such a paradox."

"I'm surprised you even know that word, Prongs," Remus said tensely. "Why are you standing here?" he asked, quickly changing the subject and when everyone shrugged they turned and walked towards the fireplace in the common room where the drinks table was.

"What are you supposed to be, Sirius? I get the whole Greek God theme but are you anyone in particular?" Dorcas asked eyeing Sirius' costume which only covered half of his chest.

"I'm Ares, the god of war and lover of Aphrodite," he said in an over sumptuous voice, grinning.

Marlene scoffed. "He wore that costume just to show off his abs." She reached and poured herself a glass of spiked pumpkin juice.

"You know you want me, McKinnon," he said winking at the girl who narrowed her eyes at him and walked away.

"In your dreams, Black," she retorted over her shoulder as she grabbed a guy dressed as a pirate by his shirt and hauled him over to the dance floor. The guy's confusion vanished as soon as he realized who he was dancing with and a huge grin spread over his face.

"I'm not very fond of cats, mate, but that's one hot kitty," Sirius told Remus, checking Marlene out. She was moving to the beat of the music, her blonde hair flowing over her shoulders. The drink in her cup sloshed everywhere but Marlene looked like she couldn't care less.

Dorcas smacked him on the head. "You two are impossible!" Sirius just shrugged at her comment and went to chat with a girl dressed as a ballerina. Dory sighed in defeat and then joined Remus who asked her to dance, her cheeks flashing red. Lily smiled at her friend because she knew Dorcas had liked Remus for a while and was happy for her that now Remus seemed to like her too.

"You know, your hair looks cute likes this," James said twirling a strand of her hair with his finger. "But I like it better red." Her cheeks immediately turned pink and she willed herself to stop. Why was she reacting like this to him?

"I need to go and talk to the Fat Lady so she doesn't let anyone go outside the common room. You know that always happens at parties," she said and hurried towards the portrait door but James caught her hand.

"Come on Lily, can't you forget your Head duties for once? This is a party, you're supposed to be having fun."

"I will, right after I do this, I promise!"

* * *

"Merlin's pants!" Marlene groaned, leaning to pour herself yet another drink. Most people stayed away from the spiked pumpkin juice after their third drink but Marlene was going strong. Since she wasn't quite a drinker, the punch was taking a toll on her.

"What happened?" Dorcas asked her absentmindedly.

"Sirius' abs, Dorcas! Merlin's sweet beard, those abs!" she sighed looking over at Sirius who was sat in an armchair, a girl chatting animatedly to him but he seemed quite uninterested, nodding slightly from time to time but other than that his eyes wandered over the common room showing that he was bored.

"You're incredible, Marlene McKinnon! Stop whining and go over to him," Dorcas told her and that received her a glare from Marlene.

"I don't make the first move. Ever."

"Says the girl who just dragged a guy whose name she doesn't even know on the middle of the dance floor," Dorcas said outraged. She couldn't believe it. Lily was warming up to James, she was making progress with Remus but Marlene of all people was at a standstill. Marlene was the one who had the most dating experience out of the three of them and so was Sirius out of the Marauders, yet, when it came to them dating each other they kept stalling, either flirting shamelessly or not talking at all, neither wanting to admit that they liked one another.

"He was just a random guy not …" Marlene quickly caught herself.

"Not someone you like?" Dorcas inquired almost smirking.

"I didn't say that," Marlene said hastily.

"No, but you were going to."

Luckily, their little feud was interrupted when a guy came and asked Marlene if she wanted a drink. She quickly checked him out from head to toe and sighed disappointedly. "Why aren't you dressed as a Greek god? Why don't you _look_ like a Greek god, for Merlin's sake you could've saved me of a lot of trouble."

Dorcas looked over at her eyes wide. "She doesn't need another drink; I think she's had enough," she said and took the pumpkin juice out of Marlene's range.

"I'm not drunk yet. I'm just very sexually frustrated. Merlin, why does he have to look so good?" She turned and glared at the boy who was staring with wide eyes at her. "Shoo!" she told him rather rudely. "I don't even like blonds."

"We all know you like the tall dark and handsome type," Dorcas commented biting her lip to hide her grin.

"Don't rub it in!" Marlene shrieked.

"Sheesh, you turn into such a mean diva when you're drunk!" Dorcas told her and forced her to sit down on a chair. "Wait here!" she ordered. "You," she said to a random boy that was passing by, "Stay with her. And don't you dare let her drink any more," she threatened. She then left the stunned boy with Marlene and searched for Sirius.

* * *

"Hey, Mar, have you seen Sirius?" James asked the gloomy looking girl.

She peered over to him. "Yeah, he's off somewhere looking for his Aphrodite," she said sullenly.

"Oooh, someone's a sore kitty tonight," James teased and she narrowed her eyes and hissed at him making him laugh.

On her way to Sirius Black, Dorcas bumped into a girl nearly knocking her over. She quickly muttered an apology and started to leave but then turned around. "Oh, Lily, I didn't recognize you. It must be the hair."

"No problem. I wasn't paying attention either. I was looking for James. We have been talking all night, can you believe it? Anyway, what are you doing?" Lily rambled quickly.

"I'm doing a favor to the two most stubborn people on earth."

"Sirius and Marlene?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh god, yes! I'm not even sure if they're trying to make each other jealous or what they are trying to do anymore," Dorcas sighed clearly annoyed.

"Why would they want to make each other jealous?" Lily enquired her brows furrowing in confusion.

"I don't know! Ask their twisted little minds! Problem is they've been sneaking looks at each other all night but they haven't spoken a word. It's like they're some broken up lovesick couple when they haven't even dated! Speaking of lovesick, James is headed this way. Better go dance with him, lover girl," she said winking at her friend.

"Sirius! Oi, Sirius!" Dorcas shouted over the music as soon as she spotted Sirius in a corner of the common room. "I've been looking everywhere for you. Where on earth have you been? Never mind, I need to talk to you," she snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. "Hey! Look at me when I'm talking to you not to…" she turned around to see what he was looking at. "Were you checking out Marlene's arse?" she asked incredulously.

"I can't help it! Her costume's distracting me!" he complained.

"That's what I needed to talk to you about," Dorcas said hastily.

"Marlene's arse?" Sirius asked his eyes wide.

The portrait door opened and everyone started to cheer excitedly. "Pads, Wormy, come here and help me with the firewhiskey," Remus yelled, struggling to carry several bottles of firewhiskey at once.

"As interesting as this conversation seems," Sirius said smirking. "I've got to go," he said hurrying to help Remus.

"No, wait!" Dorcas shouted after him but her voice was lost in the crowd. "This party doesn't need any more alcohol anyway, trust me," she muttered turning to go back to Marlene. When she came near the fireplace, where she had left her friend she noticed that Marlene was near her supposed 'nanny', her hand sprawled on his chest and she was purring something in his ear that made him grin, a sly, seductive smile on her lips. He handed her a glass of firewhiskey and she smiled at him and took it.

"You're really incompetent! Don't fall for her charms, she's evil!" Dorcas chastised the boy slapping Marlene's hand away from the drink.

"I'm not evil. I just wanted to make sure there's nothing wrong with me, if my charms still work, as you said. I left that guy speechless so maybe there's something wrong with him, Sirius I mean. Such a shame, maybe he's gay," she pondered.

"You're drunker than I thought if you question Sirus' sexuality," Dorcas said dead-serious. She was about to take Lily and get Marlene upstairs.

"Believe me honey," a girl said smiling sweetly at Marlene. "There's no way Sirius Black is gay. I have firsthand knowledge of that." Marlene looked about ready to go and strangle her so Dorcas quickly caught her hand.

"Easy there! We don't want to take the term cat fight to a whole new level, Marls."

"I don't care, anyway," Marlene said taking a calming breath and another sip of firewhiskey much to Dorcas' protests. "He can go and snog as many brainless girls as he wants, for all I care." With that she turned and attacked another boy on the dance floor not even caring that he was already dancing with another girl.

"Why is Marlene dancing with a doctor?" Lily asked Dorcas, coming to sit down next to her.

Dorcas shrugged, suppressing a sigh. "She's drunk. And sexually frustrated, according to her."

"Sirius?"

"Uh-uh" Dorcas nodded being too tired to make conversation. She had been babysitting a drunk Marlene all night and could barely wait until Marlene crashed so they could take her upstairs.

"Wow. She's dancing like she wants to eat him for dinner," Lily observed. She was distracted by the sound of smashing glass and she looked to the portrait door to see that Sirius had dropped a bottle of firewhiskey.

"Oi, you bloody idiot! That stuff is expensive," James said coming over to help his friends with the firewhiskey. "Stop checking Marlene out and go dance with her!"

"No way!" Sirius protested. "She's dancing with Dr. McDreamy. A doctor costume! How much lamer can you get?"

* * *

"I need another drink," Marlene said stumbling to the drinks table.

"No you don't!" both Dorcas and Lily protested pulling their friend back.

"Don't be such joy killers!" Marlene pouted. She sat down on a chair nearly falling down.

"Joy killers?" Dorcas shrieked. "You have been a joy killer for us all night long. Not to mention incredibly selfish since you don't even care about us and our romantic problems because you are too focused on yourself!" Marlene looked shocked at Dorcas' outburst. "I had to stay and make sure you're not doing something crazy because you've suddenly decided to get drunk since you're too scared to admit that you like Sirius and go and dance with him! I was so happy that Remus wanted to spend time with me and asked me to dance a dozen times but I had to refuse _every single time_ because I had to babysit you! Talk about a joy killer!"

Marlene looked positively scared by the time Dorcas finished her ramble.

"Dory…" Marlene began but Dorcas' glare cut her off.

"Come on, upstairs, Mar," Lily said softly but firmly. "The party's over for you."

* * *

**AN: Hey there lovely people! **

**I'm kind of making up for the absence by posting a longer chapter than usual. Anyway, school started and my idiot of a math teacher decided to give us a test at the beginning of the term (which makes no sense) and I had to study so I didn't really have time to write. However, I plan to update more frequently from now on. :)**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter so review it if you did.**

**Merci beaucoup to you all!**


	6. Waffles and Vanilla

"Doe, Lily, wait!" Marlene shouted as she rushed over to the girls who stood at the entrance of the great hall. She was panting when she stopped near them and she quickly finger combed her hair to minimize the bed hair look. She overslept and didn't have time to pull herself together as usual. Despite that, she still looked almost perfect, the only thing that was messy being her hair.

Marlene shuffled uncomfortably. "Hey, about the party last night," she continued. "I'm sorry. You're right, I was completely selfish and I didn't think about you two. I just wanted to say thank you for being good friends and babysitting me and not letting me jump off the Astronomy tower or whatever I wanted to do last night. I acted like a complete idiot just because of a boy."

Lily and Dorcas remained impassive for some moments and then turned to each other. "Did she just apologize? Did Marlene McKinnon just apologize?" Dorcas asked incredulously a small smile playing on her lips.

"I think she did. Hide your children, hide your wives, the end is near," Lily exclaimed in mock fear, trying not to laugh.

Marlene winced. "Don't rub it in," she muttered. "Seriously, though. I really am sorry. I acted like a five year old with a tantrum."

Dorcas shot Marlene a sympathetic smile. "I know you didn't mean it and it's ok. I overreacted a bit last night. Not dancing with Remus at a party isn't the end of the world."

"Well, neither should be the fact that Sirius Black doesn't ask you out but last night I wasn't mature enough to think like this. I didn't want to ruin your night, Doe. Yours too, Lily. You almost looked like you were having fun with James," she added as an afterthought. She regarded the red-head whose cheeks had turned slightly pink.

"Erm… yeah, almost," Lily said hurriedly. "Let's go or we won't have time to eat," she said as she entered the Great Hall and plopped herself down at the Gryffindor table. Dorcas and Lily helped themselves with waffles pouring an obscene amount of syrup on them while Marlene buttered piece of toast. They finished the waffle really quickly and then they waited for Marlene who was a really slow eater.

"I envy you for that. You can eat whatever you want and not gain a pound," Marlene told her friends. Marlene was quite plump as a child and her mother had always commented on this. Also, because of her appearance she was really shy. But that changed in the summer before her fifth year at Hogwarts when she lost weight and instead of being a shy girl she completely transformed into the flamboyant, flirty girl that she is now. She started going to parties, became popular and befriended the Marauders and somewhere along 6th year she developed a bit of a crush on Sirius. Nevertheless, Marlene always remained very careful about what she ate and she had days where she would remember her mother's mean comments and get a bit down. Even though she was now slim and toned, she still had curves – it was in her genes and over the years she had leant to accept this: that she wasn't –and never would be – skinny like Dorcas and Lily were and that was ok because most guys prefer curvier girls so she was considered hot and not fat. However, it still irked her that she had to be careful about what she ate, as opposed to her friends.

"You know Mar, a lot of skinny girls envy you too," Dorcas told the girl looking behind her at the Marauders who entered the great hall.

"Yeah right, if I ate just one bite of the caloric-bomb that you just ate, I would instantly turn podgy. Or podgy-er," she added putting her toast down, her appetite suddenly gone.

Someone behind her huffed indignantly. "That's not 'podgy', McKinnon. That's called 'hot'. So eat your toast so you won't pass out today," Sirius said. He sat down at the table and poured Marlene a glass of pumpkin juice. James, Remus and Peter sat down at the table slightly perplexed by their friend's behavior. Dorcas and Lily were wide-eyed too.

"Why is he acting like they didn't avoid each other all night yesterday?" Lily quickly whispered to James who in turn shrugged at her in a way that seemed to say just go with it. Dorcas raised an eyebrow at Remus to ask if he knew anything but he just shook his head slightly. Marlene, however, didn't miss a beat.

"Not even going to mention the fact that you called me hot, Black," she shot back smirking while taking a bite of the toast. Sirius gave her a sheepish smile.

"So," Dorcas cleared her throat, attempting to make her friends stop staring at Sirius and Marlene. "Did anyone know the answer to question number ten on the potions essay?" she asked. Remus nodded and switched seats with Peter who was near Dorcas to show her his homework. Lily and James stared talking about their Head duties and patrolling arrangements and Peter joined Marlene and Sirius' conversation about the deaths announced in the Daily Prophet.

"Two muggles, three muggle-borns and two pure bloods," Marlene recited from the paper. She scanned the article to find the names of the casualties.

"Who are they?" Peter asked grimly when Marlene gasped.

"It's the Prewett brothers."

"Gideon and Fabian?" Sirius asked peering over her shoulder at the paper.

"Yes, they're Molly's brothers," she said as she shook her head. Everyone hated days like this when more deaths were announced in the paper. Unfortunately, the deaths were more frequent now. Conversation at the Gryffindor table slowly ceased as the news travelled round.

"Molly Prewett? Is she the girl who was helping Madame Pomfrey in the hospital wing when we were first years?" Lily asked, having heard the news.

"Yes. She's about ten years older than us and she's Molly Weasley now. I heard she has five kids already. The last two were twins, she had them this year. My mom works with Arthur Weasley, her husband at the Ministry," Marlene explained.

"She sure moved fast," Sirius commented.

"She's almost thirty," Marlene exclaimed. "I think it's nice that she wanted to have a lot of kids. Not a lot of people are courageous enough to have kids nowadays." Lily and Dorcas nodded grimly at her comment which was, unfortunately, true.

"Let's get to potions," Lily said softly and they all got up and left silently, the events of the morning darkening their moods. When they got into potions, however, their mood was further darkened when professor Slughorn announced that they were going to be working in pairs. He was going to put the students from both houses that were in the class - Gryffindor and Slytherin - in pairs in alphabetical order.

"Okay, settle down," Slughorn said when everyone groaned and a few Slytherins shouted obscenities. "Alright, let's see the pairs," he continued looking at his list. "Black and Black together. Narcissa and Sirius that is," he announced. James patted Sirius on the shoulder in solidarity when he heard and moved to let Narcissa take his place at the table.

"Hello, Cissy, darling," Sirius said courteously but Narcissa ignored him.

"Dolohov and Evans," the professor continued. Lily didn't even blink as she gathered her things and moved to Dolohov's table who muttered 'filthy mudblood' under his breath, but James tensed visibly and griped his potions book tightly so as not to spring across the classroom and give Dolohov a knuckle sandwich.

"Longbottom with Lupin," Slughorn said after a few more names. And Frank took his belongings and moved next to Remus with a relieved expression on his face.

"Thank, Merlin," Frank said as he put his cauldron down next to Remus'. "I thought I was going to end up with Rodolphus Lestrange. He creeps me out." Remus smiled sympathetically at him.

"Malfoy with McKinnon," Slughorn announced.

"Well, what do we have here?" Lucius Malfoy asked smirking while Marlene came to his table with her books. He was sprawled in his seat, leaning back and his eyes raked over Marlene's body. She narrowed her eyes for a second at him and then she pretended to drop one of her books right in his lap.

"Oops, it slipped," she said smiling sweetly as Lucius doubled over in pain. Next to them Sirius had a proud expression on his face while Narcissa looked mildly concerned.

"You bi-" Lucius started but Sirius interrupted him.

"Don't you even dare finish that thought," he threatened smiling dangerously. Slughorn looked over having heard the commotion so Lucius kept his mouth shut.

"Meadows and Mulciber," the professor said and Dorcas took her cauldron and moved to Mulciber's table which luckily was next to Sirius'. The boy quickly shot Remus a look reassuring him that he'll keep an eye on the Slytherin.

"Pettigrew and Potter." Peter exhaled a breath he had been holding and quickly moved next to James at his table. "And Rosier and Snape. Okay, I expect you to be able to cooperate with your partners," Slughorn continued while the whole class snickered and muttered 'not likely'. "Your grade depends on this," he said and the class quieted down a bit. "You are going to make Amortentia, the love potion. Or rather, obsession and infatuation potion as there is no potion in the world that can make someone feel love. The reason why I paired you is because when the potion is nearly finished it tends to draw people towards it. You have to be careful and switch turns with your partner so that no one is tempted to drink it. Should you or your partner drink Amortentia, you are both going to fail. Now off you go, turn to page three hundred and ninety four and you'll find the recipe."

* * *

Double potions went by slowly since everyone in the class was so tense but it all ended up ok and everyone managed to make their potions. Slytherins, even if they didn't care about their grades that much, were extremely competitive so they put in the effort to make a good potion. At the end of the class everyone was lined up waiting to give Slughorn their vial which held a bit of the potion.

"The smell is so good, it's musky," Marlene said sniffing the potion and Dorcas shot her an annoyed look. "Come on, I'm not going to drink it. I was just commenting about the smell." In front of them in the line, Frank and Remus presented their vials to professor Slughorn and they both earned an Outstanding.

"Malfoy and McKinnon," the professor said scribbling their names and then turned to examine their vials.

"What does it smell like to you?" Marlene asked Dorcas and she blushed slightly.

"Books and chocolate," she mumbled but Marlene wasn't paying attention because Slughorn was debating on her grade. When he proclaimed that both she and Lucius had gotten an Exceeds Expectations, Marlene went back to her seat smiling.

"Hmm… Miss Meadows, this is a Poor," Slughorn told Dorcas who looked crestfallen. "Still, I don't want to fail students unless it's absolutely necessary. So I will give you an Acceptable if you promise to get a tutor. I'm sure a fellow classmate could help-"

"Remus can do it!" Marlene and Sirius said in unison much to Dorcas' horror who turned bright scarlet. The professor however didn't notice a thing.

"Brilliant! Mister Lupin, if you think you'll find time with your prefect duties to help Miss Meadows than that would be perfect," Slughorn said.

"Of course I can," Remus said sincerely. At the same time, Dorcas turned to Marlene and whispered 'I am going to kill you'.

"You can thank me later," Marlene said winking at the still blushing girl, and then she turned and shot Sirius a triumphant smile.

After Slughorn finished marking the other students' potions he dismissed the glass and the Gryffindors headed to the Great Hall for lunch. The Marauders, Lily, Dorcas and Marlene sat down at their usual spot at the table and piled their plates with food.

"Lunch, finally!" Sirius said happily. "The whole potions classroom smelled like vanilla. My stomach was going crazy. I need to eat something sweet!"

Remus smiled. "Padfoot, the classroom didn't smell like vanilla. It was the potion," he told his friend. "Amortentia smells differently to every person depending on what they find most attractive and you would have known this if you did your potions essay last night," he added.

"Apparently, you like vanilla," James said piling mashed potatoes on his plate. Lily shook her head in amusement at the amount of food he ate. "What? I'm a seventeen year old guy, we eat a lot," he told the redhead.

"Vanilla?" Sirius asked quizzically. "Maybe it's because of vanilla pudding. But … I like chocolate pudding better."

Marlene slowly turned her head and smelled her hair which, as usual, had a faint scent of vanilla in it from her perfume. She smiled slightly at Dorcas and Lily who had knowing looks on their faces.

"I smelled vanilla too," Peter said and the three girls turn to look at him with puzzled looks. "Moony, you said you smelled waffles with syrup, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did. I guess the smell doesn't always make sense," Remus said. Dorcas turned subtly to look at her friends who now regarded her with the same smile she had earlier regarded Marlene. She tried to figure if Remus had seen the waffle she had eaten this morning at breakfast but she was certain that all the waffles were gone from the table by the time the Marauders had arrived.

When they finished lunch they all got up to head to their next class and Lily quickly came next to Dorcas. "Waffles?" she asked her friend, smiling from ear to ear. "That's a sign," she added and Dorcas blushed.

"What did you smell?" she asked Lily.

"A mixture of wood, grass and ink," Lily said, her brow furrowing in confusion. "I still don't know what it means."

"Lily, you can be really thick sometimes. Quidditch players always smell like grass from the pitch and wood from the brooms after they play," she said, her eyes on a certain Quidditch-obsessed Gryffindor. Lily's eyes went a little wide but whatever she wanted to say was forgotten when Marlene came next to Dorcas.

"Waffles?" she inquired her brow raised.

"Vanilla?" Dorcas said, mimicking her friend.

Marlene rolled her eyes and laughed. "It doesn't mean anything; a lot of girls have vanilla in their perfume. Nevertheless, I'm getting three more bottles of my perfume when we go to Hogsmeade!"

* * *

**AN: Hello again, lovely readers!**

**I know that this chapter and the last one are a bit more Dorcas/Remus and Marlene/Sirius related but I will have plenty of James and darling Lilykins in future chapters, I promise. I needed to focus on the other characters too. Also, what is with Peter smelling vanilla in his Amortentia? That's dubious. Could he have a tiny crush on Miss McKinnon? Could that be one reason why he framed Sirius in Godric's Hollow, out of jealousy? Could be…**

**Also, a pat on the back for Sirius who doesn't want girls to starve themselves to be skinnier. He sure can be a considerate chap when he wants to, even though he doesn't get over his big ego and ask Mar out already.**

**Don't forget to review (aka make my day) if you like this story so far or favourite it or follow it and whatnot. Gracias! :)**

**PS: What do you think Amortentia smells like for James?**


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